Late last summer, The Rockefeller Group and Investment Property Associates L.L.C. said they would break ground on the $57.5 million Liv Northgate in Gilbert, Ariz., in early 2013, and now they have. The joint venture has commenced work on the first phase of the 402-unit luxury apartment community at Rockefeller’s 155-acre mixed-use North Gateway project roughly 30 miles outside of Phoenix.

Liv Northgate is the sole “live” component of Rockefeller’s live-work-play North Gateway development, which could ultimately feature as much as 1 million square feet of office and industrial space and 12.2 acres of retail offerings. A garden-style apartment complex designed by Whitneybell Perry Architects, Liv Northgate’s units will be housed in two- and three-story structures on nearly 25 acres at the intersection of Warner and Recker Roads.

Rockefeller and IPA expect that North Gateway’s well-positioned location near freeways, airport and major employers will attract businesses to the mixed-use project’s office segment and, in turn, residents will follow to Liv Northgate. And market fundamentals are on Liv Northgate’s side as well. “Despite the reintroduction of new construction to the market, Greater Phoenix multi-family operating fundamentals remained healthy as 2012 came to a close, as renter demand for units continued to be buoyed by a strengthening employment outlook,” according to a report by commercial real estate services firm Colliers International, which represented both Rockefeller and IPA in the formation of their joint venture last year. “As 2013 begins, multi-family conditions are positioned to improve as hiring continues to fuel demand for apartments and the competition from single-family homes being employed as rentals should ease.”

With MC Clark Wayland on the ground orchestrating construction activity, Liv Northgate will help answer the increasingly loud call for apartments with the delivery of its first units in spring 2014.